(Computer) Hardware performance vs software demand

[losangeles]

3nm technology is on the Horizon with Apple Silicon’s new generation of processors (either the M2 Pro/Max/Ultra/Extreme or perhaps the M3 iteration. Obviously, more advancements will ensue in the following years, as well.

Is the demand of audio intensive applications reaching a plateau relative to upcoming hardware advancements? In other words, barring outlier scenarios in which several tens to hundreds of instances of plugins are needed, or polyphony is outrageously high, do you foresee audio software (e.g. analog modeled synths, high quality sample-based instruments,..) being close to maxing out their hardware resource demands, or do you think software will continue to scale up with hardware capabilities (despite it, perhaps, seeming unimaginable or unnecessary currently)?

[uOpt]

People will come up with plugins that use hardware that is available.

And the user interface side of all software gets more and more complicated and bloated.

But we are right now in a lucky overkill situation. How long that will last remains to be seen.